Sackville Street <1>
July 23rd
My dear Henry
We are just returned, tired to death, from seeing the king <2> go to prorogue the Parliament, after having sat up & danced yesterday at Devonshire house, the night before at Almacks, <3> & the night before that at the Duchess of Bedford’s <4> – We had intended going to the House of Lords, & had provided ourselves with tickets, but Mamma <5> was afraid of the crush & the heat which must have been intense, so we contented ourselves with going to Mr Bankes’s window in Old Palace yard, <6> where we saw the whole procession. – The king was in a magnificent coach ornamented with gold tritons, & drawn by eight cream coloured horses covered with blue ribbons; some of the royal household followed in a carriage drawn by eight black horses dressed in red ribbons. – The crowds of people, the king’s band, the lifeguards, the peers in their robes, & the number of handsome equipages, made alltogether [sic] a very fine sight. – We saw some of the peers immediately afterwards, who said the king had spoken very well. – I am glad to see he has restored Sir Robert Wilson <7> to his rank in the army –
Adieu, my dear Henry, pray write again soon –
your affectionate Sister
Caroline Augusta Feilding –
W. Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Post Office
Lymington
Hants
Lacock Abbey <9>
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Willliam IV acceded to the throne on 8 September 1830
3. Almack’s Assembly Rooms, founded by William Almack in 1765.
4. Georgiana Russell, née Gordon, Duchess of Bedford.
5. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
6. Henry Bankes (1757-1835), politician; his wife died at Old Palace Yard.
7. Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777–1849), general. His peremptory and apparently unjust dismissal from the army followed an incident at the funeral of Queen Caroline in 1821. The new king reinstated him with the rank of lieutenant–general, backdated to 1825.
8. Lady Anne Hunloke, née Eccleston (1788–1872); after 1860, known as Lady Anne Scarisbrick arrived a few days ago, with her daughters Charlotte Mary Hunloke (1808–1857), and Eliza Margaret de Biaudos, née Hunloke (1810–1878), and Sir Henry John Joseph Hunloke, 6th Baronet (1812–1856), elder son of Lady Anne. [See Doc. No: 01944, and Doc. No: 01961].
9. Readdressed in another hand.